I don't get this whole treble thing. Of course a Canadian team can get all three trophies, the Canadian championships only has 3 teams competing for it. I think it is pretty amazing for a team to win the SS and the MLS cup, that's impressive, but as for the "treble" it's just nonsense.

Generally the stadium doesn't open until 4pm for a 5pm kickoff. They always have a weird beer garden/play area thing in a field next to the stadium (outside the gates) that opens at 3pm, which is where I'm assuming the giveaways will be. I wouldn't worry about re-entry.

Some ithaca flower power for me while I kill off this trini-mexico game. http://i.imgur.com/Tt0TWmS.jpg good thing for late starts because i have a feeling im going to be having more than a few of these tonight.

I once tried to build a couple tools for this (scraper and api). Not long after I got it all working, MLS went and redesigned their site and which killed my scraper :(

I figured if there wasn't a public API, I'd go ahead and build my own. Unfortunately MLS weren't super big fans of this. They said the tool was fine, but I couldn't provide the data it retrieved to anyone. Also, I think if you scraped too aggressively you'd probably get some unwanted attention.

On the upside, it's a totally possible thing to do. Their markup is typically pretty parseable, so scraping the data isn't exactly insurmountable. Took a couple weeks to build all that up, but afterwards I had a pretty handy tool. I stopped blogging for the Fire though, so that combined with MLS redesigning the site killed the project for me.

I built a similar scraper a while back but unfortunately MLS's site is inadequate for even just game data -- there's no detailed game info prior to 2013, and no info on shootout results pre-1999. It's not enough to even reconstruct statistics or standings let alone build interesting predictive models.

I don't think the FO has said or alluded to anything regarding Avaya being expanded soon. I think the team is focused on getting the $30-40 million academy complex built before they worry about expanding Avaya. Unfortunately, I doubt they'll be expanding Avaya for at least another five years or so, just based on what else is going on (but I could be totally wrong).

I'd put money on it being the best Cosmos Kit since the relaunch. From what we've heard (and what Adam said on the Loyal Company podcast last week, though you might have missed it cuse he was so quiet... stupid tech issues), Inaria being the kit provider is in large part because of the Fath brothers. Apparently they're big time fans of the company, and worked on hooking up NY with Inaria. With some of the (unfortunately rejected) options for San Fran, I'm pretty psyched to see what New York and Edmonton will have this year.

I think it's a mistake to think an expansion team is like all other expansion teams. Just like it was a mistake to say foreign coaches categorically can't succeed in MLS.

Atlanta has assembled a roster that is significantly better than any expansion team has in the past. To say Atlanta will fail because NYCFC did is barely surface-level analysis.

We had guys like Jacobson, Ballouchy, Wingert, Hernandez, Brovsky, and more fodder in our opening day lineup, and still managed to place 8th. Look at Atlanta's lineup and try to tell me that's an 8th place team. Yes there will be some growing pains, but they are the most talented expansion team by miles.

I'm definitely annoyed by the degree of sandbagging on behalf of Atlanta, especially.

When NYC missed the playoffs their first year with Villa, Pirlo, Mix, etc., it was considered a failure and Kreis was fired. Atlanta has a much better roster and a higher profile coach. I suspect if Atlanta misses the playoffs, given how much money has already been spent on that team, there will be consequences, too.

They just sent out season ticket info this weekend (before the latest round of NASL doomsaying), so I assume they'd be included in this. I think the Kezar Stadium renovations they're financing (like the Candlestick seats) are wrapping up as well.

If you're willing to drive, Belmont has (ice) pick-up games on Friday afternoons and Saturday nights. Redwood City has a game on Sunday mornings. I think Yuerba has a waiting list but I've never tried playing there. Not sure about the various Sharks Ices either.